Tell senators to do right Sen. Blanche Lincoln has received more national attention than usual since Congress has been waiting for the finance committee that she sits on to produce a health care reform bill.
[FULL
TEXT]

Lottery madness You know that the grabby compensation practices at the state lottery are arousing people because Gov. Beebe weighed in this week that he was bothered by the high salaries. Beebe never criticizes anybody or anything — almost never.
[FULL
TEXT]

PCSSD vs. NellumsOne or more members of the Pulaski County Special School District Board went ballistic when Michael Nellums and Kim Forrest accused them of having a vendetta against Nellums.
[FULL
TEXT]

Huck’s main adversary
is not running (This column, which appeared here on Jan. 17, 2008, won first prize in the Arkansas Press Association’s Better Newspaper contest. It placed second in the National Newspaper Association’s contest.)
Mike Huckabee’s most formidable opponent is not running for president.
[FULL
TEXT]

If you crush freedom,
it will rise again
Col. John McDonald, the top commander at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina who had once been a squadron commander here, lost the confidence of his superiors and was dismissed from his post a week ago Friday, apparently for showing poor leadership.
[FULL
TEXT]
Pope installs commander from LRAFB
Col. John McDonald, the top commander at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina who had once been a squadron commander here, lost the confidence of his superiors and was dismissed from his post a week ago Friday, apparently for showing poor leadership.
[FULL
TEXT]

Brother tells of shooting at D.C. museum
School groups and other tourists are back at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
[FULL
TEXT]

Private still hurting after terror attack
Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula wasnt feeling well enough to attend the funeral of Pvt. William Long on Monday.
[FULL
TEXT]

How shooting victim survived attack at LR recruiting station
Jacssonville soldier, his body riddled with bullets, comes home to recuperate from injuries.
[FULL
TEXT]

Koko sang ‘Wang Dang Doodle’ to us
Koko Taylor, the Queen of the Blues, appeared at the Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival in Greenville, Miss., last September.
[FULL
TEXT]

A survivor in shooting
doing well
Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, who was a fullback and a linebacker for the Jacksonville Red Devils in 2007, is recovering from gunshot wounds after a terrorist attack Monday at an Army recruiting station in Little Rock.
[FULL
TEXT]

Chrysler, GM have obligation to preserve jobs
If General Motors and Chrysler go through with plans to close 40 percent of their dealerships, 187,000 jobs will disappear — which is more than the number of people Chrysler and GM employ at their plants.
[FULL
TEXT]
Some crime less serious than others
George Biggs, who resigned last week as director of the Jacksonville Parks and Recreation Department, hardly served any time in prison for killing a man 18 years ago in Texarkana, Texas.
[FULL
TEXT]

Second top 10: More of our favorite blues records
After our recent column about our top 10 blues records, here’s a list of our next 10 favorites. (The first installment appears on our music blog at www.arkansasleader.com.)
[FULL
TEXT]

Alamo ploy is an effort to hide past
With all the economic problems around us, you may not have noticed that the imprisoned evangelist Tony Alamo is about to go to trial on child-abuse charges.
[FULL
TEXT]

Homeowner facing threatof foreclosure
He built a house in Prairie County about five years ago and paid his mortgage every month until the economy went bad.
Now he’s fighting to keep his mortgage company, Countrywide Financial, from foreclosing on his home.
[FULL
TEXT]

Bailouts costly,but do not let
them fleece us
The federal government could soon take over more failing financial institutions, including the giant Bank of America, which has several branches in the area.
[FULL
TEXT]

Ex-legislator pleased
tobacco tax passed
Former Rep. Sandra Prater, D-Jacksonville, who had introduced a bill for more trauma centers in the state when she was still in the legislature, is glad the tobacco-tax increase was approved in the Senate this week and in the House the week before.
[FULL
TEXT]

Tobacco lobby sends Dr. Death from Texas
Dick Armey of Texas, the former Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives who’s now a pitchman for Big Tobacco, came to Little Rock yesterday to lobby against raising the tax on tobacco.
[FULL
TEXT]

Beebe battles deadly tobacco lobby in ledge
Gov. Mike Beebe led a rally at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock on Monday for his proposed 56-cent tax increase on tobacco to pay for health services, including a statewide trauma system.
[FULL
TEXT]

When your stockbroker ignores you
In some cultures, people who have betrayed others are so ashamed that in extreme cases they will end their lives for doing you wrong.
[FULL
TEXT]

Apartments given
a new lease on life
The Jacksonville apartment building whose owners let the building go to hell — broken windows just about everywhere and utilities shut off because the owners wouldn’t pay their electric and water bills — is under new management and is getting a new lease on life.
[FULL
TEXT]

It’s the year of the blues,
or how blue can you get?
This has been a tough year for almost everyone, and things could get worse in 2009. Times are bad, or in the words of the immortal bluesman B.B. King, “How Blue Can You Get?”
[FULL
TEXT]

Little girl left Santavery sad(This is a reprint of a previous Christmas column.)
When my friend Jack Sallee was with the Jaycees in Fayetteville, they’d put an ad in the paper at Christmastime, saying that for $2 you could have Santa come to your place.
[FULL
TEXT]

Arkansan key player
in machineBack in the 1950s, the Chicago political machine picked a young black lawyer who was born in Blytheville to run for the state House of Representatives after reapportionment gave the city an additional district.
[FULL
TEXT]

Pearl Harbor survivor
tells of '41 attack (This column about the late McLyle Zumwalt first appeared here on Dec. 9, 1989 and is reprinted to mark the 67th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.)
Most people think of retired Col. McLyle Zumwalt as one of the organizers of Pathfinders, which trains the developmentally and physically disabled in Jacksonville.
[FULL
TEXT]

Preacher’s jail ministry
is real close to home It doesn’t look like Tony Alamo, the self-styled evangelist and accused child molester, will be home for the holidays.
[FULL
TEXT]

Pastor retires after
42 years with church Two years after he had cancer surgery, Lyndon Whitledge has retired as pastor of North Jacksonville Missionary Baptist Church, where he was the minister for 42 years and at its predecessor, Unity Baptist Church, which was in the Sunnyside section of Jacksonville.
[FULL
TEXT]

Why Obama must hold Hillary closePresident-elect Barack Obama is said to be considering Hillary Clinton for secretary of state to discourage her from challenging him for the Democratic nomination in 2012.
[FULL
TEXT]

Unexpected blowout as nation veers to leftThe election of Barack Obama as president is as dramatic as the election of Ronald Reagan a generation ago.
[FULL
TEXT]

McCain hopes stock rally will save candidacy The pundits were saying last week that the only way John McCain could win the presidential election was if the stock market went up 3,000 points. Well, who knows?
[FULL
TEXT]

The man who couldn’tstay out of trouble After he went to prison for six years for tax evasion and cheating his followers out of millions in wages, Tony Alamo should have thought about retiring from his phony Christian cult and stayed on the right side of the law, living out his golden years in a double-wide trailer somewhere in the Ozarks, not far from his native Missouri, singing “Volare” to himself as the sun went down.
[FULL
TEXT]

Family speaks after son killed in shootout with police Steven Smith’s family buried their schizophrenic son Friday morning, four days after he’d been fatally shot in their house by Jacksonville police following a five-hour standoff.
[FULL
TEXT]

Gwatney: He found his voice in politicsNot long after he was shot at Democratic Party headquarters just before noon on Wednesday, Bill Gwatney’s family and friends knew his wounds would prove to be fatal.
[FULL
TEXT]

British girl who survived bombs, German scientist
who made them Christine Diffie of Jacksonville was just a little girl back in England during the Second World War, when German bombs and rockets fell from the skies and families were split up and sent to the countryside where it was considered less dangerous, especially for children.
[FULL
TEXT]

Gala honors Jordan centennial The old house on South Main Street in Brinkley is falling apart, and there’s only a handmade sign in the front yard to remind passersby that this is where Arkansas’ most important musician was born.
[FULL
TEXT]

Hustlin’ Lu should give back bonus and resign Luther Hardin, the tireless self-promoter who’s itching to run for governor after Mike Beebe finishes out his second term, should give back the $300,000 bonus he received from his pliant board of trustees just for staying on as president of the University of Central Arkansas.
[FULL
TEXT]

Soul singer Green keeps streak going Soul singer Al Green, the minister of love who was born in eastern Arkansas, keeps spreading his message of happiness and good vibes with his third CD from Blue Note, “Lay It Down,” which evokes the exuberance of his 1970s Hi Recordings.
[FULL
TEXT]

Experienced lawmakers know right from wrong Sen. Jack Crumbly of eastern Arkansas can keep his seat despite “flagrant fraud” that helped him get elected, but two veteran senators are outraged that their colleagues voted last week to let him stay in the Senate.
[FULL
TEXT]

Hillary’s loss reminiscent
of stumble by Bill in ’80 Hillary Clinton is giving up her dream of becoming president anytime soon, but she said on Tuesday she’d consider the second spot on the ticket.
[FULL
TEXT]

Tornadogets tooclose for
comfort Sen. Bobby Glover was in his car early Friday afternoon when a storm roared into Carlisle. He was just a couple of blocks away from the old railroad depot on Main Street, where he has his insurance office, and he was worried about his daughter Robin and was desperate to find her.
[FULL
TEXT]

LR lawyer caught in subprime meltdown Before there was a subprime meltdown, thousands of homes were sold to buyers who couldn’t afford the mortgages that went with them and middlemen lined their pockets with hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and fraudulent expenses.
[FULL
TEXT]

Huck prays for miracle after lossesAn obvious sign that his presidential campaign is sinking and out of money, Mike Huckabee is throwing the national media off his plane and bus and will probably soon abandon Florida, placing all his bets on Super Tuesday on Feb. 5.
[FULL
TEXT]

Huck’s main adversary is not runningMike Huckabee’s most formidable opponent is not running for president.
[FULL
TEXT]

Central book is suddenly more timely Ralph Brodie dropped in at the Jacksonville Rotary Club on Monday to talk about his book, “Central in Our Lives: Voices from Little Rock Central High School, 1957-59.”
[FULL
TEXT]

Hillary hurt, Huck boosts McCain for nomination Until a year ago, Mike Huckabee was an obscure governor from a small state that has a knack for producing national political figures.
[FULL
TEXT]

Aretha releases record of the yearRecord of the year: Aretha Franklin’s “Rare and Unreleased Recordings from the Golden Reign of the Queen of Soul,” a two-CD set from Rhino that discounters sell for about $15, which is a bargain.
[FULL
TEXT]

What little girl wanted for holiday (This is a reprint of a previous Christmas column.)
When my friend Jack Sallee was with the Jaycees in Fayetteville, they’d put an ad in the paper at Christmastime, saying that for $2 you could have Santa come to your place.
[FULL
TEXT]

Huckabee impressive, unenduring Former Gov. Mike Huckabee is way up there in the polls, pulling almost even with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the Republican presidential nomination, although Huckabee badly trails all potential Democratic nominees.
[FULL
TEXT]

Pearl Harbor
marks 66th
anniversary
(This column about the late McLyle Zumwalt first appeared here on Dec. 9, 1989 and is reprinted to mark the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.)
[FULL
TEXT]

Tough vet able to cry and smile When you saw Bill Greer, he usually smiled like all his brothers.
[FULL
TEXT]

Parties still looking for their savior While Republicans and Democrats are slugging it out over who should get their party’s presidential nomination — for many, the choices aren’t all that terrific, which is why minor candidates like Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul are pulling up from the rear —the good news for Lonoke County Republicans is they have squelched a rebellion to humiliate the mayor of Cabot and an alderman.
[FULL
TEXT]

Department plays games with scores The state Education Department last Friday sent out a poorly written press release that bragged about how much progress public schools are making, although if you read far enough into the press release, you realize schools are doing less well than the year before.
[FULL
TEXT]

Quillin’s relatives stand by their man Ron Quillin’s mother-in-law wasn’t too happy with my column Wednesday about the former Pulaski County comptroller who’s in prison for stealing more than $40,000 to finance an affair with a lady friend who was doing business with the county.
[FULL
TEXT]

Emails out, but in-laws still pay up It was nice of Ron Quillin’s in-laws to mortgage their home so he could repay Pulaski County more than $42,000 he stole while he was the county comptroller, but after they saw the infamous emails he sent to his girlfriend printed in the papers, they must wonder if the bum is worth keeping as a son-in-law.
[FULL
TEXT]

It doesn’t take long to get out of prison You’ve probably noticed how criminals get their names in the papers over and over again.
[FULL
TEXT]

It’s Biscuit time in Helena The Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival in downtown Helena — formerly the King Biscuit Blues Festival, although it’s still the Biscuit for most fans and it’s still free — will kick off next Thursday with several strong acts and will continue through next Saturday with plenty more good music, and there’s still lots more across the river the following afternoon in downtown Clarksdale, Miss.
[FULL
TEXT]

Classmates meet, recall friendship Ernest Green, perhaps the best known of the Little Rock Nine, was walking up a couple of flights of stairs at Central High School after Tuesday’s ceremony marking the integration of Central 50 years ago this week.
[FULL
TEXT]

No troops when you need them Most people in Little Rock resented the arrival of the 101st Airborne Division to ensure the integration of Central High School 50 years ago — many of those troops were flown into Little Rock Air Force Base — but almost exactly the year before, I would have welcomed the 101st into my native Hungary.
[FULL
TEXT]

All voices need to be heard now No one at the Little Rock School District or at Central High School will tell us if the city will honor white students and their teachers who stood up to the bigots outside Central High School when Gov. Faubus tried to keep nine black kids out of their neighborhood school 50 years ago this month.
[FULL
TEXT]

Recognizing others who were there Gene Bowman of Jacksonville is one of about 4,500 people who’ve received invitations to a ceremony Sept. 25 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the integration crisis at Central High School in Little Rock.
[FULL
TEXT]

Pizzeria closes after move and owner’s surgery
The state Highway Department is completing work on an on-ramp at Hwy. 67/167 in north Jacksonville, where the Pizza Company did pretty decent business for more than a decade.
[FULL
TEXT]

Sad news hits us hard this August
A death in the family and deaths of friends have made us think about mortality.
[FULL
TEXT]

My father: A witness to 20th Century When my father passed away at the age of 85 late in the afternoon on Aug. 5, one of the doctors at the emergency room at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Miami called my brother Steve with the terrible news.
[FULL
TEXT]

Is Villines trying to hide more disgrace? It’s hard to figure out why Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines has opposed the release of emails written by a disgraced former employee — unless Villines thinks they will make his office look bad and raise questions about what his workers are doing when they’re on the clock.
[FULL
TEXT]

Americans who make a difference While we visited the other day with Brig. Gen. (Select) Rowayne Schatz, the commander at Little Rock Air Force Base, and later with members of a local church, they reluctantly mentioned some extraordinary things they’ve done — one in the line of duty, the others going overseas with a church group.
[FULL
TEXT]

Local TV closes in on killing When it comes to local TV news, they say if it bleeds, it leads.
[FULL
TEXT]

Kids, dope don’t mix with driver He’s been driving a bus for the Pulaski County Special School District for 22 years, and this summer he drives a van for special-education students who attend a summer program at the Jacksonville Middle School for Boys.
[FULL
TEXT]

Stax marks 50 years of great musicIf you remember Isaac Hayes’ “Theme from Shaft,” the Staples Singers’ “Respect Yourself,” Eddy Floyd’s “Knock on Wood,” Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay,” Booker T. and the MGs’ “Green Onions” and the Mar-Keys’ “Last Night,” you would have enjoyed a concert last month in Memphis commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stax record label.
[FULL
TEXT]

Air strategy saving lives Brig. Gen. (Select) Rowayne Schatz is in his office at the headquarters of the 314th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base, where he’s the commander, and he reaches for a dagger he’d brought back from Qatar a couple of years ago, when he was in charge of running airlifts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[FULL
TEXT]

Payday series wins award in competition (The Arkansas Press Association awarded The Leader first place in the Better Newspaper Contest for our in-depth reporting on payday lenders. This column from March 22, 2006 was part of that series.)
A populist state like Arkansas, which once had the lowest usury rate in the nation — 10 percent was the interest limit until 1982 — now allows payday lenders to charge outrageous interest rates — often several hundred percent interest.
[FULL
TEXT]

Next move may be up to federal prosecutor When the FBI completes its public-corruption probe into former Cabot Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh’s administration, interim U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin in Little Rock could be the one who decides whether to file charges against Stumbaugh and his cronies.
[FULL
TEXT]

How city wiped out vet’s investment A veteran of Vietnam, Iraq and the former Yugoslavia, Jim Eggert bought two commercial buildings in Jacksonville, but the closing of the Graham Road rail crossing killed business. He’s put his property up for sale, but he’ll have to take a huge loss.
[FULL
TEXT]

Famed photographer had roots in area If you turn off Hwy. 5 at Cabot near the freeway and drive down Cleland Road for less than a mile, you’ll come to Mt. Pleasant Road.
[FULL
TEXT]

U.S. prosecutor demoted over bullying e-mail Witness in Campbell trial used his government computer and official title to try to intimidate newspaper with threat of a $50 million libel suit and takeover of The Leader.
[FULL
TEXT]

Why didn’t feds take this case?
You may have wondered while you were following the corruption trial of Jay and Kelly Campbell in Lonoke County why the U.S. attorney’s office in Little Rock didn’t prosecute the couple, along with two shady bail bondsmen, who will be tried later. [FULL
TEXT]

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July 18, 2009

Taking off for Air Mobility Rodeo
Members of the 19th Airlift Wing prepare to leave for the Air Mobility Rodeo at McChord Air Force Base in Washington. The 314th Airlift Wing also sent a team. Some 140 airmen left Friday on four C-130s, hoping to bring back at least as many trophies as at the last rodeo in 2007..

Most juniors fail literacy test in PCSSD, LonokeIN SHORT: All Searcy junior high students scored advanced in algebra, and all Cabot junior high students scored proficient or better in geometr. [FULL
TEXT]

South Bend buys two new fire trucksIN SHORT: The volunteer department will provide better service in its area. [FULL
TEXT]

Lonoke Walmart opensIN SHORT: Groceries are now available, after about two and a half months. [FULL
TEXT]

Searcy racer Tyler Stevens has blossomed in the modified division since joining Kevin Barker’s racing team last summer.

Arkansas Activities Association has lot on plate
at Aug. 4 meetingIN SHORT: Nobody seems particularly happy with the Arkansas Activities Association these days, but then, when have they been? The AAA is developing the same reputation as the NCAA — overly officious, full of rules created with some abstract benefit in mind, but which ultimately leave a lot of people scratching their heads and saying, “What?” [FULL TEXT]

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